Every day a vehicle spends in the workshop is a day it isn’t operating. In a fleet with intensive operations, reducing average downtime translates into direct savings and better service levels for customers.
Downtime has two parts: the active time spent working on the vehicle and the time lost between operational events, waiting for approvals, parts or a workshop slot. The second part usually accounts for most of the total, and that is where the real opportunity for improvement lies.
The total time a vehicle is out of service because of a ticket breaks down into two parts.
Partial time, the actual work. The time the mechanic spends working on the vehicle. Diagnosis, disassembly, parts replacement, reassembly, testing. It is the productive part of the ticket.
Time between statuses, the waiting. Waiting for the part that didn’t arrive, the approval of the additional quote, the workshop slot, the driver who has to pick up the unit, the invoice needed to close the ticket. It is the dead time.
A clutch repair can involve six hours of actual work and three days of waiting. The vehicle is down for three days with six hours of real work. The dramatic improvement lies in the second component, not the first.
Before you cut the waiting, you need to understand where it comes from.
1. Waiting for parts. The mechanic diagnosed the problem, ordered the part and waited for it to arrive. In fleets without stock on hand or suppliers with committed lead times, this wait can last days.
2. Waiting for quote approval. The workshop found an additional part or unplanned work. It needs approval, and approval takes time when there is no clear escalation flow.
3. Waiting for a workshop slot. The vehicle arrived but there was no capacity. This happens mostly at external workshops with several customers competing for space.
4. Waiting for the driver to pick it up. The unit is ready but the assigned driver can’t come for it: shift over, route in progress, another vehicle assigned.
5. Waiting for the invoice to close. The work is done but the invoice isn’t ready. The ticket stays administratively open even though the vehicle is already operating.
Each one has a different solution and improves downtime by a different amount.
Months 1 and 2: baseline measurement. Without data, no reduction is possible. Turn on partial time and total time tracking on all corrective and preventive tickets. After a month and a half, you should have the real average for each by ticket type, by model and by workshop. That is your starting point.
Months 2 and 3: tackle waiting for parts. Analyze the most frequent parts from the past year. The fastest-moving ones, such as air filters, oil filters, belts and brake pads, should be in stock at your own workshop or committed by agreement with the external workshop.
Months 3 and 4: tackle waiting for approval. Define thresholds. Small quotes don’t need additional approval and the workshop goes ahead directly. Mid-sized ones need approval from the maintenance manager within a committed timeframe. Large ones go to senior management. Without defined escalation, every approval is a bottleneck.
Months 4 and 5: tackle waiting for a workshop slot. Renegotiate with external workshops to include guaranteed slots for urgent corrective work. Consider expanding the network to spread out demand. For preventive work, schedule ahead on the calendar so the workshop reserves the slot.
Months 5 and 6: tackle waiting for the driver and the invoice. Notify the driver when the vehicle is ready, with the option to designate someone else to pick it up. And separate the technical close from the administrative one: the vehicle goes back into operation without waiting for the paperwork.
Besides reducing the waiting, the other lever is better prioritization. Not every ticket has the same operational impact.
Critical. A vehicle that blocks the operation of a key customer or a strategic route. It takes priority over everything else and can justify paying the workshop overtime or a more expensive part.
High. A unit whose downtime has an impact but can be temporarily covered by another one. It is prioritized within the normal flow.
Medium. A vehicle that isn’t on a critical route and whose downtime is tolerable for a while.
Low. A unit with low utilization or under evaluation for renewal. It can wait without significant operational cost.
Priority is set when the ticket is opened, and it is what orders the queue when the workshop can’t keep up.
The Maintenance module brings the levers together:
Do you know how many days a year your vehicles sit idle in the workshop?
With VEC Fleet you measure the partial time and total time of each ticket, and you see exactly at which stage the days are lost.
